The Letterman Jacket
by SereneCalamity
Summary: They were practically opposites, but they made it work. Stucky. Oneshot.


_A Stucky fic! Because I love them :)_

 _Disclaimer: I do not own the characters._

For someone who didn't know them, it would be hard to see Steve Rogers and James 'Bucky' Barnes as a couple.

Even for some of the people who _did_ know them, it was hard to see them as a couple.

Outwardly, they were so completely different.

Steve was at university, doing an architecture degree, but he was also on a partial scholarship because of his basketball skills. He looked like a typical, All American boy, with his blue eyes and chiseled features and perfectly parted blonde hair. He was polite, intelligent, and girls practically dissolved into puddles when he sent a smile their way. Everyone seemed to liked him and spoke highly of him, and a lot of the people that he was surrounded with were the pretty, athletic types that were typically around people like him.

Bucky was studying linguistics, since he already fluently spoke German and Russian, and he had never been _near_ a basketball game before he met Steve. He had his best friend, Clint Barton, and then an ex-girlfriend who was now another best friend, Wanda Maximoff, and her twin brother, Pietro Maximoff, and that was pretty much all he ever wanted to spend any time with. He had long dark hair that was usually loose around his face, sometimes tied back in a messy bun, a couple of piercings in one ear and a ring in the left corner of his lip. He was sullen and sarcastic, and Wanda had actually overheard one of his lecturers saying that he was _scared_ of Bucky.

They had met through Natasha Romanova, who was Clint's girlfriend. Bucky had been completely prepared to shut Steve down, not looking at all happy when Clint had dragged them to a reasonably popular club on a Saturday night, when he preferred to drink at dive bars where the music wasn't quite as poppy, and the drinks weren't quite as sugary.

But it turned out, despite popular word of mouth regarding Steve, he really wasn't quite as perfect and a total ladies man as Bucky expecting.

For one thing, there were green flecks in those blue eyes.

For another, he was a light weight.

Then there was the fact that he very easily followed along with a conversation that Wanda struck up about the latest _Star Wars_ movie, showing off a little Millennium Falcon tattoo on the side of one of his fingers, proving that he was a bit of a nerd.

And then there was that whole thing where he wasn't a ladies man.

He was very _much_ into men.

Bucky found that out when they were making out sloppily in the bathroom, and Steve put his hand under Bucky's shirt while Bucky moaned like a fucking teenage girl. Steve had been so eager than they had barely even _made_ it to the bathroom in the first place, and Bucky had dropped to his knees, not caring that he was wearing his best jeans, and this bathroom floor was covered in all sorts of fluids he didn't want to know about.

It was awkward at first, because Bucky _hated_ PDA and he _hated_ leaving his dingy apartment and he _hated_ crowded, over populated areas, like the basketball court whenever there was a game on. In turn, Steve loved going out for runs, he always wanted to hold Bucky's hand or kiss him on the cheek, and got so many social invitations that he actually showed Bucky the calender he had to keep on his phone.

It was a bit of a mess, which resulted in Bucky feeling hopeless, because of _course_ a guy that he really liked came a long, and it just wasn't going to work out.

However, Steve was ridiculously determined and perhaps just a little too stubborn, because when Bucky had mumbled one afternoon that maybe things weren't going to work out for them and it might be better if they just called it quits now, Steve's eyes had widened as though the thought had never even occurred to him. He had sounded hurt, but had said that if Bucky didn't have feelings for him, then there wasn't anything Steve could do about that and maybe they _should_ break up.

But if Bucky was just saying this because they were different, then fuck that, because that's what made shit interesting.

Bucky hadn't really known how to respond, so he had settled from gripping the stupid letterman jacket that Steve usually wore and pulled him in for a searing kiss.

They were still practically opposite.

Just because they decided to stay together and work through the things that made them so different, didn't mean they became anymore similar.

Bucky still hated crowds.

Steve still loved being around people.

Bucky still preferred to go to tiny, dark, hole in the wall coffee places where the food was always a little questionable.

Steve still preferred to go to Starbucks, where the waitress would flirt with him, and he would get overpriced iced hazelnut macchiato.

Bucky didn't understand the allure of watching a bunch of guys throwing a ball back and forth while sitting in seats that were sticky with soda.

Steve was terrible at picking up on other languages, his pronunciation was always off and even though he was enthusiastic, somehow he just failed miserably every time.

But he kept on trying, because he wanted to understand the beauty behind it, in the way that Bucky did. He could definitely appreciate the beauty, and he loved it when foreign words dripped from Bucky's mouth when they were rolling around in be together. It made him harder and hotter than ever. But he still tripped over even the most simple of words, and Bucky had to force himself not to laugh.

Even though Clint hated sports as much as Bucky, Natasha and Pietro both understood and liked basketball, and so they explained to him the basics, and Clint came with him to the games, as moral support. Bucky couldn't quite get his head around all the rules, but Wanda's explanation was a lot easier to go with.

Cheer when Steve got the ball through the hoop.

Boo when the team wearing different colours to Steve did.

Bucky could get his head around that.

So he sat in the stands—with Clint on one side and Wanda on the other, to protect him from the crowds—with his long hair around his face, and a headphone in one ear because the sounds of so many people screaming around him gave him near anxiety. And he cheered when his boyfriend got the ball through the hoop, and booed when the people in the green and white singlets did. And he caught Steve's eyes sometimes when the coach yelled out for break, and Steve's smile would always be so big it almost broke his face in half, and Bucky knew that being here was the only place he needed to be on a Saturday night.

Bucky never rushed down from the bleachers after the game, even when Steve won. The cheerleaders would always flood the sweaty gym floor, screaming, and family, friends and fans would always congregate around the team. When Steve's team won it would get even crazier, and the support from their college could get so loud that Bucky would need to put both headphones in his ears and turn his music all the way up. But it was okay, because Clint would stay with him, and Natasha would as well after she had gone down to congratulate Steve, and the crowds didn't hang around for all that long after the teams went to the changing rooms.

Bucky pursed his lips together and nodded at his friends, who were asking him if he was okay if they left. They were all going to be meeting for pizza in about half an hour anyway, but they were just making sure that he didn't need them to hang around and wait for Steve to get out of the changing rooms. Pietro waved over his shoulder as the four left the gym, and Bucky slowly began making his way down the metal stairs. There was still a handful of people left in the gym, some family members were dawdling by the double doors that lead out toward the car park, and a janitor had just come out with a weary look on his face as he surveyed the mess in the gym.

"Hey!" Steve called out, and Bucky looked toward the changing rooms, where Steve was coming out by himself, with his gym bag slung over one shoulder, his hair damp sticking to his forehead adorably. "Sorry, have you been waiting long by yourself?" Steve asked as they walked toward each other.

"Nah, the others only just left," Bucky replied with a smile. "You played great today," he told his boyfriend. He may not totally understand the whole game, but he knew that Steve had managed more than four hoops by himself, and he had heard cheers and shouts of Steve's name throughout the crowd almost the whole evening.

"I always play better when you're here," Steve grinned and reached out a hand as they finally came together, wrapping a hand around the back of Bucky's head, fingers tangling in the long strands, and bringing their lips together. It was only short, because Steve completely respected Bucky's want for privacy and hate for public displays of affection, and then they parted. "This looks good on you," Steve murmured as he dropped his hand from Bucky's face to the blue and white letterman jacket that Bucky was wearing. It completely clashed with Bucky's usual clothing, dark and usually ripped jeans, and long sleeved, dark coloured shirts, sometimes with a little smattering of colouring, of the dark blue or dark red variation.

But it was Steve's jacket.

And despite the way that Bucky felt about couples who clambered over each other as though to show the world that they were together, there was a thrill that shot down his spine whenever he was wearing this jacket, with Steve's name stamped along the bottom, like a declaration of ownership.

"I fucking love seeing you in it," Steve continued, his hand slipping through the open front of the jacket and pressing against Bucky's side, warm and heavy.

"I know," Bucky's lips curved upward, the ring on the left side twitching. Bucky was struck with a confident feeling, and he reached up and kissed Steve hard, biting down ever so lightly on his full lower lip. Steve made a noise of surprise, and when Bucky pulled back, his eyes were quickly turning dark. "You think we'll be missed if we don't meet the others for pizza?"

"I don't give a damn," Steve answered, dropping his hand to Bucky's and gripping it tightly, and Bucky let out a short laugh. "Let's get out of here."

 _Let me know what you think x_


End file.
